Berks coroner hopeful new testing will bring answers in cold case from 69

CUMRU — Berks County Coroner Dennis Hess knew that without the blueprint he would not have found the bodies of two unidentified women who have been dead for almost 50 years.

The bodies are from a 1968 cold case and Hess hopes new technology and DNA testing will help identify the victims.

On Aug. 22, 1968, the body of one victim was found by a 14-year-old boy near Route 82 in Caernarvon Township. The woman died from multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the right temple, Hess said.

Almost a year later, on April 17, 1969, the skeleton of a second woman was found in French Creek State Park. The cause of her death remains undetermined, but Hess said it was ruled a homicide.

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During the original investigation, it was determined that both women worked at the Reading Fair in 1968 and may have been connected to a motorcycle gang in the area.

A forensic anthropologist determined at the time that the women were connected to each other because they were wearing the same Italian sandals, Hess said.

He said a missing persons report was filed in Philadelphia at the time, but the report could not be found when Reading Police went to look for it. Now, 45 years later, Hess may be able to find answers to lingering questions.

In February 2013, Hess spent approximately six hours walking around the county’s potter’s field trying to find the women’s unmarked graves.

“There were no plaques and no markers to indicate where the two girls were buried,” Hess said. At one point, the graves were marked with wooden signs, but Hess believes they deteriorated or were stolen.

Hess said that many of the caskets were wooden boxes that crumbled over the years. The settling of the soil and the deterioration of the caskets left divots in the ground.

“That made it easy for us to know a grave there,” he said.

State Trooper Robert Hess, no relation to the coroner, walked the field with a ground penetrating radar that showed the two men what was buried, but it would not show details. Dennis Hess said finding the graves he was looking for was an educated guess.

“Without the blueprint, we would not have found the girls,” he said.

Robert Hess said when the bodies were buried in the field, the caretakers did not follow the predetermined system. He said the bodies were buried in lines that were not reflected on the map.

“It was like a pirate map almost,” Robert Hess said.

That blueprint could have been lost forever if it wasn’t for a fast-thinking clerk.

When Berks Heim, the county nursing home, moved to a new location, a clerk saw the blueprint but did not know what it was for, Hess said.

He considers himself lucky to have come across the map.

When he started his search Hess began at the last grave completed in the section where the women could have been buried and worked his way backward.

But in order to dig, Hess went through months of court hearings and public announcements to alert residents they would be digging near graves.

No one stepped forward to stop the exhumation, Hess said.

On Monday, the waiting paid off.

“It was jubilation when we found the graves,” Hess said.

The first grave uncovered had a plaque that read, “Found: April 17, 1969. Buried August 1969.” Hess said that the second grave only read, “Unknown female” and was marked by a crucifix.

Hess took the remains of both women back to the lab at Reading Hospital. After reassembling the skeletons, Hess sent a femur and a tibia from each woman to a DNA research lab in Texas.

A family in Philadelphia donated DNA to the database in the hope of finding a match for their missing female family member.

Hess said if the DNA from the unidentified women does not match the DNA from the Philadelphia family, then it will be cross-checked against the national database.

Hess said he is anxious to get the results back and hopefully close this decades old case. But results could take months if the analysis lab is busy, Hess said.

Although Hess is hopeful the new tests will identify the women, he said they will not be able to determine how the second victim died. Hess said the woman does not have any visible signs of trauma, like the first victim’s gunshot wounds.

Despite the uncertainty of the pending results, Hess said he is proud of the work his team put into the investigation.

“It was quite interesting,” Hess said about the process. “Quite an experience.”

About the Author

Caroline Sweeney formerly worked as the police reporter for the Pottstown Mercury. She is no longer on staff. If you wish to contact anyone at The Mercury about her stories, please call our main number at 610-323-3000 and ask for the editorial department. Reach the author at csweeney@pottsmerc.com
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